The
Great Hunter. He boasted that no animal could defeat him.
Orion was known in ancient Greece, around 500 B.C., as the warrior.
Orion was the son of Poseidon, the god of the seas.
Orion boasted that so great was his might and skill as a hunter that he could
kill all the animals on the face of the Earth. Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was
alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate statement. Gaea decided that Orion
must be killed just in case he might one day decide to carry out his boast. So
Gaea sent a giant scorpion to Orion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As
mighty as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver
the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel (at the star Rigel).
Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in the sky, but they were
placed at opposite ends of the great sky dome so that they would never engage in
battle again. Although there are other storied about how Orion met his death,
this one is the most common.